The Oquirrh Mountains
are always so mysterious. Riddles with trails, more than half of the mountain
range is considered private property. The south end of the mountains contains
something even rarer for the hills.
Public Land.
On the south end, lies
pockets of Bureau of Land Management Public Land. This land can be accessed
from the top of Butterfield canyon, various small canyons (which I am in the
process of mapping/exploring) and in the back country of Ophir.
For this excursion, I
found a listing for the trail here on page specifying trails in the county:
http://www.tooelecountytrails.com/images/print%20pdfs/lionhillloopprintablemap.pdf
It snowed. Yep. 2020,
when the world is upside down and the previous Monday was hot enough my home
needed to be cooled, and today, In September, it snowed.
It was a beautiful
respite though. The temps in Salt Lake were awful and the long period without a
proper rainstorm was really grinding on me.
The parking at the trail
head was amazing. a lot of room, plenty of space for cars and room to park. I
did not see a restroom though, or freshwater at the trailhead. It is also
important to note though, the document above mentioned that the trail could be
traveled by Off Highway Vehicle (OHV). I didn't see any, but the day was windy
and cold, so it might have been a factor.
The trail is essentially
a really rough rough dirt road, but there are advantages to this. There is
plenty of play to choose the best path by foot, and in steep sections, you can
make your own mini switchbacks. As someone with a knee injury, that is
something I value.
From the parking lot, it
is easy to find and start on the trailhead, and there is signage.
from the moment you
start, you are in the trees, and if you catch the trail in the morning or
evening in the summer it should be easy to find shade for most or all of the
way. It is hard to judge the temps in the summer since the freak weather system
dropped the temps. Knowing the region means stick to the evenings of morning. This
part of Utah is hot. There is little water, and any running water would be
seasonal at best. There were a few cattle troughs that in a tight spot, you
could filter from.
As a callout to preparation,
this day of hiking was a good example of bringing the 10 essentials. While
unclean, there is water to filter from, and I was glad that I brought extra
clothing because I underestimated the severity of the temp drop. From the 97 on
Monday to easily below 35 and snowing was just not something my brain could
comprehend. (For more information on what the 10 essentials are, see our post
here: The 10 Essentials)
The trail winds a way
and then gives up the trees for a beautiful valley floor where the trail forks
into 2 directions. To the left it winds up a canyon to be explored later and to
the right, the saddle which was ultimately our destination.
The wind was heavy off
and on, but the storm seemed to break, and we were open to the sun. The air was
cold, but the sun was warm.
As we continued our
climb, we found a lovely sheltered area out of the wind and sat for lunch. The
wind picked up, and really spoke to the place we found. We were out of the wind
to munch down our premade sandwiches from Walmart.
After lunch, the wind
was howling, and the temps took another plunge. We did have to travel through a
bunch of aspens which, paired with the freak windstorm, was a little sketchy. a
lot of visible tree damage could be seen.
From there, it was a
climb up to the overlook saddle. from the light fading fast, we made the
decision to turn around rather than completing the loop. And it was a good
choice since the cool weather persisted and the remaining part of the trail was
in shadow.
The way down was nice,
and following the way down was lovely as the weather calmed. The cool air persisted, and at that elevation, during the night, the temps dropped below freezing.
Without proper gear, and a planning, this would have been a miserable time, but luckily, we planned to have fun, and did. Even if it was a bit cold and a bit snowy.
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